Trump to raise sanctions against Syria and meet the new president

President Trump said on Tuesday that he would raise US sanctions against Syria and throw an economic lifeline into a country that was destroyed by the Assad family by almost 14 years of civil war and decades.

Mr. Trump was to meet for the first time in Saudi Arabia in Saudi Arabia with the new President Syria's Ahmed al-Shara, where the American leader makes the first big state visit to his second term. Mr. Al-Shara headed the rebel alliance that President Bashar al-Assad displaced in Syria in December.

The US President made the surprise announcement to end the sanctions when he spoke a business forum in the Saudi capital Riad, in which the crowd broke out and gave him ovation.

The decision is a change of sea for Syria, which violates the economic border in a country as critical of the stability of the Middle East.

“There is a new government that hopefully succeeds in stabilizing the country and keeping peace,” said Trump. “We want to see that in Syria.”

Throughout Syria, people flocked to the streets of big cities to cheer the news from which they hope to alleviate the destructive poverty that is exposed to the majority of the population.